John Lorn McDougall
Encyclopedia
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
businessman and political figure. He represented Renfrew South
Renfrew South
Renfrew South was a federal and provincial electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1968, and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. It was located in the province of Ontario...
in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
from 1867 to 1871 and in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
as a Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
from 1869 to 1872 and from 1874 to 1878.
He was born in [Golden Lake, Ontario], Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
in 1838, the son of John Lorn McDougall, Sr.
John Lorn McDougall, Sr.
John Lorn McDougall was a businessman and political figure in Canada West.He was born on the Isle of Mull, Scotland in 1800, orphaned at a young age and raised by aunts from his mother's family. He joined the Hudson's Bay Company in Scotland as a clerk and came to Lower Canada in 1820...
. He studied in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. He entered his father's business in Renfrew, taking over the operation of the business in 1860, when his father died. He served several terms as reeve of Renfrew and also was warden for Renfrew County
Renfrew County, Ontario
Renfrew is a county in the Canadian province of Ontario. In 2006, the population was 97,545 and county covered , giving a population density of . There are 17 official municipalities.-Government:...
. His lumber business failed in 1878 and, shortly afterwords, he was named to the post of Auditor General of Canada
Auditor General of Canada
The role of the Auditor General of Canada is to aid accountability by conducting independent audits of federal government operations. The Auditor General reports to the House of Commons, not to the government...
. The Public Accounts Audit Act of 1878 established an auditor general who was independent of government financial operations and had some degree of independence from the party in power. His attention to detail, efforts to tighten controls on government spending and persistence ruffled some feathers, but ultimately helped establish the importance of this role. Unfortunately, because his office relied on information provided by government departments, some instances of fraud went undetected. Despite resistance from government departments, he helped improve financial control by parliament and established annual reports on government spending. He resigned in 1905 and opened a private company that performed audits for companies and municipalities. He died in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
in 1909 after suffering a series of stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
s.